Fundamental to all chemical reactions, which react two or more reactants together to produce products, is the release of energy (in exothermic reactions) or the absorption of energy (in endothermic reactions) associated with a particular chemical reaction. By properly controlling chemical reactions of an exothermic variety, energy can be released and converted into useful electrical or mechanical power.
One common form of exothermic chemical reaction is a combustion reaction. In a combustion reaction, a fuel is reacted with an oxidizer to produce products of combustion. Fuel has energy stored in the bonds between the atoms comprising the fuel molecule. The oxidizer (often oxygen) readily reacts with the fuel molecules to form products of combustion which have lower bond energies, such that energy is released by this reaction. This energy is typically in the form of increased temperature of the reaction products and also can result in increased pressure and/or volume of the combustion products, depending on conditions surrounding the location where the reaction occurs (i.e. within a cylinder of an internal combustion engine or upstream of turbine blades in a gas turbine). The combustion reaction energy release can be harnessed, utilizing known engine design techniques, to produce mechanical power. With an appropriate electrical generator, this mechanical power can be converted into electrical power for transmission or other use.
A separate form of chemical reaction which similarly can harness the exothermic reaction energy produced by reacting a fuel with an oxidizer is that implemented by fuel cell technology. With fuel cells, the fuel and oxygen mixture is not ignited. Rather, the fuel and oxidizer are merely allowed to react together in the presence of the fuel cell device itself. Electrical power is generated by the fuel cell device as the fuel with the oxidizer react to produce the fuel cell products and generate electric power simultaneously. Most typically, the fuel cell utilizes hydrogen as the fuel and oxygen as the oxidizer with the fuel cells producing water as a product of the fuel cell reaction. Some fuel cells are known which utilize other fuels, such as methane (CH4).
While combustion based power systems and fuel cell based power systems are well known in the art, their development in the prior art has been limited to primarily their advancement independent of each other.